On the Upper Berbice River. 331 



paralyzed with terror that they passed the night, without 

 food or rest, on the island. 



Just above, in the middle of the curve on the left 

 bank, the Eureka creek, one of the few to be found on 

 the Upper Berbice, joins the river. Here, it was at first 

 believed that gold would be found in sufficient quantity 

 to pay for working, but further investigation gave no 

 encouragement. Here also, I was assured by a hunts- 

 man belonging to one of the prospering parties, that he 

 had met with a strange white animal — pure white, he 

 insisted — about the size of a small dog ; and that by the 

 waterside at night, the mewing of a cat — an unmistaka- 

 ble cat — was to be heard : but during our short stay, 

 the strange animal was unseen, and the cat unheard. 



Upwards the same high forest continued, the almost 

 uniform green being at times broken by the red pods and 

 flowers of the wallaba. A few tooroo and loo palms, 

 and a few dwarf manicoles were at times seen ; great 

 vanilla vines draped many of the trees ; flowering epiden- 

 drons and brassavolas clothed many of the branches ; and 

 overhead rose masses of Schomhurgkia and Diacrum on 

 the high tree-tops. The yarooroo with its great but- 

 tresses formed a conspicuous feature. On the low-lying 

 parts within the forest, the broad and spreading cokeriti- 

 balli and the dahlibanna grew in masses. Selaginellas 

 grew in abundance on the moist parts of the banks, with 

 delicate filmy ferns ; and here and there small clumps of 

 the bracken flourished in the more open sunny places. 



A few short bends above the Eureka creek, a great 

 dyke of quartz-porphyry runs across the river to form 

 Winter's cataraft, the great rush of which is avoided by 

 a channel on the right or East bank, through which the 



TT 



